


That's the Spirit

by Plagg



Category: Thomas Sanders, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: College AU, M/M, the ghost hunting au apparently several people asked for, tho rn it's just a
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 03:18:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13732011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plagg/pseuds/Plagg
Summary: “Tell you what,” he started, leaning forward so he was under Virgil’s nose, “you prove to me that ghosts are real, really truly make me believe, and I’ll take you out to dinner.  Deal?”





	That's the Spirit

“Oh, come on, Logan!  Please, for me?” Roman whined over the phone, making Virgil raise an eyebrow from where he sat on his bed.  His roommate was always on the phone with someone, so he normally drowned him out, but this seemed a bit different.  “I’ll get you that stupid Captain America comic you wanted if you do this for me!”

Virgil just rolled his eyes and slipped his headphones over his ears, deciding he was done listening to the eccentric boy to his side.  Of course, as he actually started to do his homework and make any sort of progress, Roman tossed himself onto Virgil’s bed.  “What the hell are you doing?!” Virgil fussed, shoving Roman away and nearly kicking him off his bed.

“Alright, not much time for you to prepare but my brother is coming over here in, like, ten minutes to help me with a lab report sooo…”

“Roman!” Virgil fussed, tossing his head back against his pillows to groan up at the ceiling.  He hated having unplanned visitors, especially ones he’s never met.

“Relax!  Logan’s a nerd and he doesn’t really say much.  You’ll barely realize he’s here!  I promise!” Roman tried to reassure, but Virgil still just glared at him, not sure whether to bolt and hide in the library or to stick around and get to know this guy for when Roman inevitably puts off a report way too long yet again.  “Trust me, you two would actually probably get along really well,” Roman said, and Virgil huffed and rolled his eyes.

“Fine, whatever, I don’t care!”

 True to his word, ten minutes later there was a knock on their dorm door.  “Coming, coming!” Roman called as he jumped out of bed and ran to toss open the door.  Virgil had half a mind to throw himself into his closet for the next however-long just to hide away from this stranger who may or may not be a ravenous, horrifying monster with gnarly teeth and wicked let’s-eat-Virgil grin.  But, as Roman opened the door, rather than a ravenous, horrifying monster with gnarly teeth and a wicked grin, Virgil spotted a boy that looked…identical to Roman.

…That was somehow scarier.

The guy carried a cup of coffee in one hand, and a messenger bag was thrown over a shoulder as well.  He wore glasses, which helped differentiate him from Roman, and a plain gray hoodie with jeans.  This guy was completely opposite of Roman; he seemed much more college-student like and less theatre nerd…and Virgil would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t find the guy kind of cute.  _Shit_.

The cute guy, _Logan?  Right?_ , made his way into the room, fussing at Roman for how filthy the space was.

“Hey, it’s not my fault!  I keep my mess contained to my desk!  It’s Hot Topic over there that just throws his junk all over the place!” Roman defended himself as well as he could, pointing an accusing finger at Virgil.

Logan looked to where the finger pointed, finding Roman’s roommate curled up in the corner of his bed with the hood of his jacket up and his laptop balanced on his knees.  It was like he was trying to hide, and Logan wasn’t quite sure why.  The boy was curled up in a tight ball, and when he peaked over the top of his laptop, Logan could see that his face was quite red.  And though he only caught a small glimpse, he could see that Virgil’s bangs covered his eyes, and his chubby cheeks were absolutely covered in a splattering of freckles that Logan couldn’t really tell if spread to his forehead or not.

Roman rolled his eyes, snatching his brother’s hand and tossing him down on Roman’s bed beside his laptop.  “Alright, enough gawking at my roommate, we have _work_ to do!”

“I wasn’t-!”

“Ah, ah!  Work!”

* * *

 

Three hours passed, and Virgil hadn’t moved once.  He really needed to go to the bathroom, but he didn’t dare bring attention to himself.  He pulled up Skype on his laptop and quickly messaged Patton, his best friend, making sure to turn off his sound so that the notifications wouldn’t make the twins on the other side of the room look up at him.  Patton wasted no time getting over to the dorm, since his room was just down the hall a few doors.

“Ding-dong!” Patton called as he entered the room.

“Yes you are,” came Logan’s automatic sounding response, which drew three sets of eyes to him.  Logan shrunk under the gaze, managing out a tiny “what?!” as Patton shut the door.

“That was really clever; what would you’ve said if I said knock-knock?” Patton asked, throwing himself down on Virgil’s bed to make the other squeak.

“I’d have said you’re a ding-dong,” Logan answered, setting Roman’s laptop aside.

“Hey, wait, who said you’re done here?!” Roman fussed.

“Ro, it’s been three hours, I believe a break is due,” Logan said, sitting back until his back met the wall.

“What’s _due_ is this report in five hours!” Roman whined, scoffing as his brother rolled his eyes.

“He’s right, Ro, if you guys have been working as hard as Virge says then I think it’s break time!” Patton said.  Virgil put his laptop down, shutting the top as he curled up against Patton’s side.  He clung to Patton like a lifeline, glad that Patton didn’t need him to explain any sort of emotion or discomfort as he always just seemed to know.

Roman sighed dramatically and fell forward, letting his head and shoulders dangle over the edge of his bed.  “ _Fine_ , but only a short break!”

And, finally, for the first time in hours Virgil piped up.  “We have the new Ghost Adventures recorded; we can watch that and eat some popcorn?”

Which is when Logan scoffed.  “Yeah, I suppose that show is pretty hilarious, should be fairly entertaining…”

“Oh no, Virge believes in this shit whole-heartedly.  It’s pretty good for a ghost show,though, and sometimes it’s pretty believable,” Roman said, which just only had Virgil flustered.

“You’re kidding, right?” Logan asked in disbelief, looking over at Virgil.  “You believe in ghosts, paranormal…all of that?”

“Well I – it’s just, I mean I kinda…yeah?”

Before Logan could question him further, however, Patton piped up.  “Of course he believes!  After all, his best friend is a medium!”  Patton slammed the microwave door shut and punched in the time for popcorn, throwing himself back down beside Virgil.

“Oh my god, Roman you didn’t tell me your roommate and cru- this guy – were into ghosts!” Logan has to stifle his snickers, holding up a hand to his mouth to keep from laughing.  Roman blushes and chances a look at Patton, hoping he hadn’t heard Logan’s near-slip up But, before he can defend himself, Logan’s questioning them again.  “Wait, so do you do the same stuff as these guys on TV?” Logan asked.  “Do you ghost hunt and all that, too?”

Virgil’s not quite sure why he’s blushing, nor why he feels such a strong need to defend himself in this, but he _does_ , and he has to stutter out a “Well, tech-technically I’ve never, y’know, gone ghost hunting o-or anything like that, but y’know, like, it’s not – not out of the question.  I’d love to, to, y’know, go ghost hunting or somethin’…”

Logan backpedals as he sees how upset he accidentally made his brother’s roommate, and he goes to cover up his tracks as he launches himself out of his seat on Roman’s bed.  “Well, if you’re so adamant that these spirits are still lingering on the Earth, perhaps you should, y’know, g-go ghost hunting and find that scientific evidence?  It would certainly be quite impressive, and it would change our basic understanding of how the universe works if there was such definitive proof that the paranormal and spiritual energies and such actually did exist and could be measured and tested and-“

“Looooo, you’re rambling!” Roman complained from where he laid, and the strange grin Patton gave him made Logan want to hide.  “Just grab the popcorn and sit down!”

Logan did just that, desperate to smother the blush growing on his face.  Why was this happening?  What was going on?

* * *

 

It was when Logan was in his English class the next day, still pondering the weird way he reacted to accidentally hurting Virgil, that it clicked.  Oh, _god_ , he was catching feelings, wasn’t he?  Disgusting, no thanks.  He wanted to just forget the boy existed.  But, instead of the universe letting that happen, it let the boy’s best friend walk in.

“Hey there, Logan!” Patton greeted, taking his usual seat behind him.  “How’s it?”

Now, Logan was smart enough to know that he couldn’t just go blabbing about his possible feelings for Patton’s best friend right to his face, so instead he just shook his head and waved off the question.  “Alright, I suppose.  I still find it ridiculous that both you and Virgil believe in _ghosts_ , though,” he said, figuring the statement would be quite innocent enough.

“Hmmm,” Patton hummed with a giggle, leaning forward on his elbows, chin in his palms.  “I dunno, you seemed pretty quick to correct yourself when my little Virge-y was getting upset!”

Logan sputtered, coughing into his hand.  “What-what are you talking about?”

“Nothing!” Patton said in such a sing-song voice; Logan was ready to just throw hands right then, but he kept himself collected.  “But, just so you know, Virgil hasn’t stopped talking about you since last night.  He’s thinking about going ghost hunting for real, and he wants to ask you to go, too.”

“Wait – really?”

Before Logan can question any further, however, the professor marched in and shushed the class.  Logan couldn’t tell you what she taught that day, his mind far too cluttered with daydreams about investigating with Virgil that he would promptly deny having if asked.

* * *

 

**_???:_ **

_hey, this is virgil, roman’s roommate._

**_You:_ **

_Oh, hi Virgil? How did you get my #?_

**_Virgil:_ **

_ro threw it at me on index card not important tho…_  
i was just wonderin if u would wanna go ghost  
hunt with me and patton next saturday…?

Now that was something Logan didn’t quite expect.  He ignored the pang in his heart as he reread the text, noting that Patton would be there as well.  Of course, he knew that Patton believed he could speak with the dead, so he would obviously want to attend this kind of thing…but that didn’t stop Logan from being slightly disappointed.

**_You:_ **

_I don’t see why not. I’ve got nothing planned…_

_Should be fun to disprove your little ghost theory ;)_

Logan groaned as he realized what he’d just sent, but there was no backing out now.  He couldn’t believe he’d used the winky-face after _years_ of never even _thinking_ of using it.  This was exactly why he didn’t do crushes!  They made him do things like use disgusting little _winky faces_ in his text messages.  He could’ve dwelled longer, but his pinged with another text message.

**_Virgil:_ **

_and it should be fun for us to PROVE our “little  
ghost theory” ;p_

* * *

 

Virgil felt like exploding.  Imploding.  Both, simultaneously.

His face was on fire; he couldn’t believe he’d just sent that.  Was he that much of an idiot?!  Yes, obviously, of course.  Gah!  You don’t just send _that_ face; with that kind of message it could come off like Virgil was flirting with him!

“Look, I know you’re busy over there trying to flirt with my brother, or whatever it is that nerds like you two do to court each other, but I’m having a crisis over here!” Roman whined, and it was enough to pull Virgil out of his misery.

“What crisis could you be having?” Virgil asked, though he didn’t really care to help.  Not when he could try to think of something else to text Logan and actually hold a conversation with him.

“It’s Patton!  Look at this!” Roman got up to shove his phone in Virgil’s face.  “You know him better than anyone, so what does this mean?!”

Virgil tried not to snort when he read the message on Roman’s phone, shaking his head.  “It doesn’t take a genius or Patton-expert to know that ‘wanna get some dinner?’ means he’s asking you out, loser.”

“ _Virgil this is now a level holy-fuck crisis, then_!”

* * *

 

It was Wednesday, exactly six days after Virgil had last seen Logan, that he got to talk to the nerd in person again.  Technically, Virgil didn’t really _expect_ to be talking to Logan, which only made things worse for him as he saw the boy approaching him from where he sat under a tree.

“Didn’t quite expect you to be the type to study outside,” Logan said with a smile.  Virgil noted how much better put together Logan looked this time, taking in the dark-wash jeans, crisp white button-up shirt, and the dark blue sweater.  He was still very, very cute.  Shit.

“Not – not really studying, honestly,” Virgil said sheepishly, drawing his feet up and inviting Logan to sit down with him.  “I was actually just, uh, looking up some equipment for the investigation…”

“Equipment like what?” Logan asked, a look of amusement to match his tone.  He couldn’t help but be amused by Virgil; it was practically impossible to not find him endearing.

“Uh, just, like, a digital recorder and a Mel meter and, y’know I mean you have to have a camera so like, I was just…just looking up if my shit’ll work and stuff…” Virgil said, scrolling quickly on his phone before putting it to sleep and dropping it to his side.  “I think it’ll work.  It should.  I think.”

Logan chuckled and nodded.  “I should hope so; Heaven knows we wouldn’t want faulty equipment to capture our ‘ghosts’ on camera,” he teases, using air-quotes around “ghosts.”

“Oh, you say it like that but when we get a ghost on camera and you can’t debunk it, what’re you gonna do then, huh?!” Virgil said, practically challenging Logan and oh _god_ he could feel his heart beating a million miles an hour in his chest.

Logan rolled his eyes, though he couldn’t help the little grin he held at just how excitable Virgil is when the paranormal is mentioned.  “Tell you what,” he started, leaning forward so he was under Virgil’s nose, “you prove to me that ghosts are real, really truly make me believe, and I’ll take you out to dinner.  Deal?”

Virgil’s eyes blew wide, and he had to swallow hard to have any chance of speaking again.  “D-deal.”

Oh, the game was on, and Virgil desperately wanted to win.  And, in a way, Logan wanted him to win, too.

**Author's Note:**

> ayyyyye me remembering i have an ao3 account for once! if you enjoyed, please let me know! and if you have any additional screaming, my tumblr is @pirate-patton


End file.
